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Bacon and Beans

A dish of boiled Windsor beans topped with bacon, bread crumbs, parsley, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Bacon and Beans

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Scrape the underside of the bacon and remove the rind.

  2. Grate bread crumbs over the top and place it before the fire for a few minutes.

  3. If the bacon is too salty, soak it for 2 hours before cooking.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the beans in salted water until done, then drain.

  2. Lay the bacon over the beans without sauce and serve separately with melted butter and chopped parsley.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Beans + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Beans + breadtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together332 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Parsley + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Bacon
Supplies fat and salty, savoury flavour that seasons the beans.
Windsor beans
Provide starchy body and bulk that holds the bacon flavour.
Bread crumbs
Toasting on top adds crisp browning and a contrasting texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the melted sauce served alongside.
Chopped parsley
Adds fresh, green aroma that lightens the rich bacon.

The step that matters

Soaking the bacon if it is too salty. Cured bacon releases salt into soaking water, so a long soak lowers saltiness. Judging the taste first keeps the dish from being overly salty.

Swap the beans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, parsley, butter):

  1. Chickpeafits about as well
  2. Lima beansfits about as well
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Beansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, parsley, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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